Trivia

A novelisation (perhaps better termed a cross-promotional tie-in loosely related to the original property) of the game was produced by Byron Preiss (with a grey-striped cover design emulating Infocom game packaging), published by Avon Books. It was written by Craig Shaw Gardner and first published in August of 1988. Its ISBN is 0-380-75385-5 and the rear cover blurb reads as follows:

"The field needs more humorists of this caliber." - Robert Lynn Asprin

THE RIDDLE OF THE TWIN WORLDS

Simon never wanted to meet an ogre. He never wanted to face a town full of terrors armed with an Acme Kitchen Wonder. But Simon was a con man who got caught and sentenced to deliver mail in the lovely town of Festeron.

It would have been an easy sentence if Festeron hadn't turned into the town of Witchville. Suddenly, Festeron wasn't lovely any more. The postmaster wanted to cancel him. The librarian wanted to shelve him. The Boot Patrol wanted to kick him, and Gloria, sweet Gloria, the girl of his dreams, was dating the entire patrol.

Armed with a magic radio and a kitchen appliance, Simon must face ogres, grues, wraiths, and one really mean librarian to turn Witchville back into Festeron again.

Wishbringer's box and content were already finished before Brian Moriarty even started programming.

Infocom had bought 50.000 plastic pebbles as gimmicks, but since the Wishbringer stone was supposed to me magical, it had to be colored. They found a contractor that was ready to supply pink glow-in-the-dark paint, but just as they came to terms, Infocom realized that the paint would be hazardous to children. They cancelled the deal, called around once more and found another company that sold a similar but safe paint.

The interesting thing about the Wishstone that separated it from other glow in the dark goodies of the day is that it actually glows purple - quite unusual! (and, as a side note, I still have mine and 15+ years later, it still glows perfectly)

A small number of grey-box releases of this game were sold without the plastic glow-in-the-dark stone, and without it being mentioned in the contents list on the back (I have one myself). These were most likely a very late release of the game, right before Activision took over. Reissuing the box must have been cheaper than manufacturing more of the plastic toys once the original supply ran out.

In my experience, this is one of the most (if not the most) early game to use documentation as a way of confirming that you had the original. Those of you who owned games in the late 80s and early 90s know what I mean. It consisted of this: in one point in the game, you find a letter that you can't read onscreen; the game mentions that it is included with the original package. Although the game didn't seem to formally use this letter as copy protection, you missed an important part of the game.